Considering Solar?

The Advantages of installing solar, extend well beyond the savings on your electric bill. Solar energy will also increase the resale value of your home.

            If you have ever considered solar as a means to reduce your electricity bill, you have probably talked yourself out of the purchase due to the inability to justify the cost. However, if you were able to recapture your cost would this change your mind? The cost for a solar panel system to completely power an average 2,000 square foot house in the Houston area is roughly $40,000 before federal rebates (which equal roughly 30%); that brings the total cost to around $28,000. The average increase in property value after  having the solar panel system installed for 5 years is $15,000(tax exempt).  

           

          A few of the benefits of installing solar include; an increase in property value(tax exempt), energy reliability, energy security, energy independence, job creation, emission reduction and a reduction in your electricity bill. 

          I have arranged a consultation with several Houston area panel installers to gather more information and have estimates provided for my home. I will post the estimates and any information I gather here as it comes in.

Why Do I Need Homeowners Insurance

People take out homeowners insurance for the same reason they take out car and health insurance: If a home is damaged or someone else injured on the property, insurance helps owners cope with the financial consequences. Homeowners insurance is actually a combination of two different types of protection, hazard insurance and liability insurance.

Hazard Insurance

Hazard insurance protects you against unintentional damage or destruction to your house or its contents, including fire, storm, theft, vandalism and similar threats, the Nolo legal website states. It can cover the cash value of the damages or the replacement value; replacement value pays enough to replace what you lost, but cash value only pays what a property is worth. The cash value for a five-year-old $1,000 television won't be $1,000, for instance, because it depreciates with age, making it worth less in the insurer's eyes.

Liability

Liability insurance covers personal liability for accidents on your property. If your neighbor trips on a hose in your yard and breaks his ankle, for example, liability insurance will pay for his medical expenses, up to the policy limit.

All of the different types of coverages on a policy make up the entire Homeowners policy to provide you with the most protection.  The different types of policies by companies are based off of revisions the companies have made to the wording within each policy. Over time companies may add or exclude certain coverages and with that comes a new 'edition' and a new name.

Why Is Title Insurance So Expensive

 Let’s start with “The Title”. This is what gives you ownership to the property.

  
      As a Seller or buyer you want a clear or clean title — one that doesn't have liens for unpaid taxes against it, or claims of ownership by a faraway aunt or uncle, or a surprise easement through the backyard to reach power lines or a cell phone tower.

As for your lender, he wants to know that the loan is going to a legitimate transaction — the seller really does own the property and therefore can sell it to you.

In other words, nobody wants an unpleasant surprise after the settlement. So a couple of things happen. First, a title search is conducted. Public records are examined manually or by computer or both. he searcher looks at deeds, wills, and trusts, tracing the history of the property back many, many years. Among the important questions is whether all past mortgages and liens have been paid. Does anyone hold an easement? Are there any pending legal actions?

But what if the title search misses something and it comes back to bite after the buyer moved in? This could happen. Buyers have even been known to lose their houses because of clouded ownership — some past problem that wasn't discovered.

The way to avoid losing everything is to buy title insurance, which is available from title insurance companies.

Title insurance is a one-time, up-front investment with rates based on the purchase price of your home. Texas Title Insurance is State Regulated. The State Board of Insurance sets the rates. They have gone down twice in the last few years.

The policy protects you by making the insurance company liable for most claims against your ownership. If a critical document was overlooked during the title search and you actually lose the house, you'll likely receive damages — but only if you bought an owner's title insurance policy at closing. You can see why experts advise you to do this.

Your lender wants a policy, too. He or she won't even loan you money unless you buy a separate lender's title insurance policy to cover the bank's interest in your property. The lender's policy should be for the amount of the mortgage.

Stay informed by following me on Google+

Are You Prepared for a Storm?

With Hurricane Season officially beginning in just a few days (June 1st), we should all take a moment to make sure we are prepared for such a storm.

            Everyone on the Gulf Coast needs to have a plan for both a Tropical Storm and Hurricane. Your family and friends will probobaly not be in the same location when the storm arrives; so how do you find each other and how will you keep in touch? If you have to evacuate, where will you go and how will you get there? What will you do if your water, gas, electricity or telephone service is out of service? Here is a link to FEMA's comprehensive "Ready.gov" website. Also, here’s a quick list of must-haves from the National Hurricane Center website; for when the next tropical storm comes through town.

           

          Also, just a quick reminder on zip code evacuations.  The Harris County Homeland Security and Emergency Management website, contains a map of the evacuation zones by zip code.  The closer you are to the Gulf, the sooner you would need to evacuate in most cases.

          Let’s hope this Hurricane Season is very quiet and boring, but if another "Allison", “Ike” or "Katrina" decides to come our way, at least we’ll be ready!

Hurricane Winds

With Tropical Storm Karen behind us and the close of the hurricane season not officially over until November 30^th, we should all take a moment to make sure we are prepared for such a disaster.  

            On the Gulf Coast we are no stranger to hurricanes but we also are probably not prepared for them either.  While checking our hurricane preparedness over the weekend, we noticed that all of our flashlights had burned out batteries.  Arrrggg….off to get more batteries.  We are really bad about that, aren't we?  I guess we could use our phones for a while but once that charge goes out, we wouldn't be able to recharge them easily. We've considered buying a generator for years but haven’t actually done it yet.  That would be a good way to ensure you could at least power your refrigerator to keep the food from spoiling.  Here’s a quick list of must-haves from the National Hurricane Center website, in case a hurricane comes through town.

           

          Also, just a quick reminder on zip code evacuations.  The Harris County Homeland Security and Emergency Management website, contains a map of the evacuation zones by zip code.  The closer you are to the Gulf, the sooner you would need to evacuate in most cases.

          Let’s hope the remainder of Hurricane Season is very quiet and boring, but if another “Ike” decides to come our way, at least we’ll be ready!

Detecting the Smoke

Make sure your smoke alarms are working properly!

Sticking with the Fire Prevention week theme, I thought we could all take a moment this evening to check our smoke alarms and make sure they are in working order.  

       The NFPA website states that two-thirds of fire fatalities were in homes with no working smoke alarms or no smoke alarms at all.  That’s reason enough to make sure our smoke alarms are working properly!  An interesting fact is that hardwired smoke alarms worked more often than battery-powered smoke alarms in fires that where big enough to trigger them, 92% compared to 77%. 

Check out this link pointing out some interesting facts about fire.

       Remember to keep extra batteries around the house for those smoke alarms when they decide to have low battery alarms at midnight!  This happened recently in our household.  We had just settled in bed after an exhausting day; the smoke alarm started that loud, annoying shriek.  Oh what a sound, especially when you just closed your eyes!  I rummaged through our battery drawer and, of course, no 9-V batteries were to be found.  This led my wife to grab the ladder from the garage and force me to “stop that noise!” immediately.  Just as I was detaching the smoke alarm from the ceiling, my 3 year old daughter came wandering out of her room, stumbling and rubbing her eyes.  Great, now the entire family was awake and grumpy!  Since we didn't have any batteries, all I could do was pull the dying battery from the connection and leave the smoke alarm there hanging in non-working order.  Boy that would have been a bad night to have a fire.  I think it took us several days to remember to grab some 9-V batteries from the store.  Reminder to self – always have 9-V batteries in the house!     

       The City of Houston has a great program to assist with the installation of smoke detectors in homes where they are desperately needed.  You may visit their site by clicking: Get Alarmed Houston! HFD Smoke Alarm Program.

Stay informed by following me on Google+

Burning Down the House

Fire Prevention  



The theme this year is “Prevent Kitchen Fires”.  It’s so important to have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen.  Fires can start easily and spread quickly in the kitchen especially with our busy lives and distractions in the home. 

This reminds me of a time I left a boiling pan of eggs on the stove.  I was trying to make a quick snack and started the water and eggs boiling on the stove.  I then ran out to the garage where I had been building a shelf, thinking I would come back inside in 10 minutes and turn off the eggs.  The problem was that I didn't even think about the eggs again.  I became distracted with building the shelf (which was looking quite good to my surprise!) and I ran back inside only to use the restroom.  When I walked into the house, there was billowing smoke everywhere and the horrible stench of charred eggs.  Panic set it and I ran to the kitchen.  Luckily, no fire had started, but the eggs had exploded onto the ceiling and the walls.  What a mess.  I quickly turned off the burner, the pan was not salvageable.  This was one of my wife’s favorite pans and I knew when she walked in, not only would I get “the look” for the stench in the house (how in the world were we going to get that out!) but I had also ruined her favorite pan!  Turns out, it took us about a week to get the smell out of the house and I have yet to replace that pan.  Hmmm….I should get on that.  I’m thankful for how this turned out.  It could have been a far worse event that ended with the loss of our house and possessions. 

After looking through the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) site on Fire Prevention, I learned that unattended items cooking on the stove were the leading cause of kitchen fires.  No more leaving things on the stove without setting a reminder or a timer in this household!

Take a look through the NFPA site: http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/fire-prevention-week.  You may be surprised what you learn. And go out and grab a Fire Extinguisher, you never know when you’re going to need it!